Apple Restricts Hard Drive Replacements on New iMacs

What a crock of ******, I have replaced the hard drive in my iMac twice, both times for larger drives, and have also replaced drives in friends and relatives iMacs when they have failed, I would much rather take apart my machine than leave it in the hands of so called experts because I take a lot more care of my stuff than they do.

I was thinking about getting a new i5 or i7 iMac, that idea is now out of the window.

Pretty weak. BTW, if your drive fails, and you don't want to pay Apple, can you use a FireWire, or USB hard drive with OSX on it? I have OSX on a drive, and use it for testing.

While this sucks, the vast majority of users won't care or even know of this limitation. Life goes on and Apple will continue to sell Imacs regardless.

I love Apple and all their Products but this is lame. It's like going back to the Packard Bell computer days.

Granted replacing a Hard Drive in an iMac is no easy task regardless.

**** Apple for this.

I feel like hugging my Mac Pro right now.

baleensavage said:

So Apple is in essence giving their computers a life span of 3-5 years...

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But...but...their computers are so green, it doesn't matter, right? Right?

Meh...mixed feelings I guess. I mean, if the drive fails, then ya I think this sucks. I mean, I can get an inexpensive replacement drive cheap, and put it in less than 10 minutes. But in terms of upgrades; I've rarely ever done it. Even when I had desktops I rarely "upgraded" stuff. Reminds me of the old tower days. All these bays, and things so I could "upgrade to killer stuff". Never happened...

-A- Hope they ditch that garbage on the next revision.

WTF, Apple.

Wow, that just sucks.

This just down right sucks...... WTF Apple.....

aloshka said:

I think thermal is an excuse to create a very closed system, as just modifying the connectors for the hell of it is an excuse. I don't get it, they are huge, people love them, and then they slowly start a bait and switch system on us. Same ***** google did with android. Open platform everyone. Now that we have you all under contracts, guess what. No longer an open system.

Starting to dislike Apple, I won't lie.

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Your comment was accurate in the beginning, but then you brought up Android for no reason. You brought up a mobile operating system in a desktop HARDWARE thread. Why? For a useless, inaccurate comparison?

Android is an open-source operating system. One of the Android project leads even said so two days ago at Google I/O. More to the point, what are you referring to? Do you mean to say that phones cannot upgrade to the latest version of the OS? Blame it on the OEMs who don't send out the updates due to the massive customization they've done to it. Do you mean that some carriers block the side-loading of applications? Blame it on the carriers.

But please, for the love of God, please don't bring up Android/iOS flame-bait in a topic about iMac hard drive upgrades, it just makes you look silly.

To reduce support calls, surely making the HDD and RAM user-accessible is a good thing?

And if the HDD were to fail, having to haul it over to the local Apple store (which could be a considerable distance for some people) makes even less pragmatic (or environmentally-friendly) sense.

Maybe next year's models will see big SSDs for the same price. Then I wouldn't care -- just keep the RAM user-accessible.

bboucher790 said:

This is the reason I switched on Windows 7. It's very hard to be a power user on Mac. Great OS, but the hurdles Apple makes you go through sometimes, are flat out annoying. 99% of the people using an iMac, however, would never know this is an issue.

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+1 I've been disappointed with Apple's decreasing focus on power users, but as you stated, the avg iMac user doesn't care/know.

This has actually been an issue before. On my fathers' 2009 27" iMac I added a OWC SSD. The HDD thermal sensor does not work w/ other HDD's causing the fans to ramp. Many by-passed it by shorting out the sensor. Since those iMacs (new iMac's have 3 SATA connectors) have 2 SATA's, I replaced the optical w/ a SSD but this is not a design issue but rather an intentional part on Apple (likely to boost AppleCare sales, that last 3 years then you're SOL).

kuebby said:

That's some bull. Just an unnecessary Apple hurdle. Don't they realize this is the kind of thing that really pisses off with regards to their company?

Sometimes I appreciate the closed ecosystem/"walled garden" but I don't need to wear a helmet and straight-jacket in my private garden.

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Agreed 100%

This sums it up perfectly.

chaosbunny said:

I feel like hugging my Mac Pro right now.

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Same here. I love the iMac design by and large, but not needless blunders like this. I'll be saving for a replacement Mac Pro when the time comes (next year).

rhett7660 said:

TWTF Apple.....

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Hello!

I have REPLACED EVERY HARD DRIVE FROM EVERY MAC I'VE EVER PURCHASED - from MacII to Quadra to Quicksilver to my 2.4mgz laptop.

DO NOT START WITH ME!

If this turns out to be the case, then I think the imac is going to slowly go away. I think the mac mini will become Apple's desktop line with people opting to attach it to their HD TV. The tower will serve people needing a little more.

Apple should reduce their product lines to just 4:
1. Macbook (formerly macbook and macbook pro - now just one line)
2. Macbook Air
3. Mac Mini
4. Mac Pro

The name of the macbook line could be debated (pro or not?).

I just hope that if this is true (and perhaps it is not), that the same is not done to the mac mini and laptop lines. One of the worst designs Apple had was the ibook with no access to the hard drive. What possible harm could come from allowing a user to easily access the hard drive? Apple should be making easier hard drive access on all of their computers.

I wish I could thumbs down this!

bboucher790 said:

This is the reason I switched on Windows 7. It's very hard to be a power user on Mac. Great OS, but the hurdles Apple makes you go through sometimes, are flat out annoying. 99% of the people using an iMac, however, would never know this is an issue.

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Well if you want to be a "power user" on a mac there is always the Mac Pro, which is built to be upgradable.

The iMac is an all in one, and even having built my own desktop some years ago I would not be willing to use a suction cup to yank the screen off of a 27 inch display to put a $200 upgrade in a $2000 computer.

If the HDD was easily accesible then I might actually care, but not in this case.

But maybe that is just me...

Old news

This is what happened in 2009 kinda old news... although the cable is different than in 2009, the result is the same.

Holy crap! This is possibly the worst thing Apple has EVER done!

Jolt said:

I wish I could thumbs down this!

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I was serious looking to buy one of the new iMacs to replace my good 'ol Mac Mini.

Won't bother now.